Earlier this month, Kenilworth Tennis, Squash & Croquet Club (KTSCC) announced the appointment of Jenny McKenna as its new Head Squash coach.

From England junior squads to senior internationals with Wales, Jen has lived squash at every level.

Now Head Coach at Kenilworth Squash Club – she's bringing her journey full circle, combining sports development, professional playing and physiotherapy to grow the game from grassroots to elite.

Passionate about creating pathways for women and girls, Jen is determined to keep teenage girls engaged in the sport and make squash more inclusive.

 A member of the Women's Squash Collective, she's championing female role models, breaking taboos, and showing that squash is a place where women and girls can thrive. 

For Jen, her new role in Kenilworth is "a full circle moment."

Jenny McKenna is the new squash head coach at KTSCC!

Her original degree was in sports development, which was her passion when she was younger.

Despite wanting to go into teaching, she decided not to take the leap, due to playing on the professional circuit.

She said: "After getting injured, I decided to be a physio because I wanted to help people. Now I'd like to bring all of that into a squash development role. I'm excited to bring it all back together."

In terms of her hopes for the club, both on and off court, Jen expressed she wants to bring both "passion and enjoyment."

"My aim is to increase participation levels from grassroots to elite. We've applied for grassroots funding and one of our main initiatives is to get women and girls back involved, particularly teenage girls, by designing sessions specially for them."

Discussing opportunities for women and girls in squash, and the difference having a female head coach will make, Jen said "the role model aspect is key."

She said: "We're lucky to have Sarah-Jane Perry at our club. She's recently set up some elite camps that she runs three days a week.

"The club also has highly talented female coaches, with Dawn Ashford, who has been at the club for over 20 years and Sophie Townsend, both key to Jen's ambitions.

"She's not earmarked them for women only, but she realises the gap in the market for women to come to female-only squads as opposed to always mixing it with the boys.

"She's bringing quality female players to the club who are really going to inspire the younger generation, boys and girls."

Jen added: "Having the right people guide them at the club is important. We have a thriving junior section and on Tuesday evenings, the class is seven girls and one boy.

"The girls were national school champions this year as well. We are quite lucky at our club that the girls have come through and sustained that love of squash. Having myself and Sarah-Jane present is going to continue to inspire that."

Going forward, Jen's ambitions for Kenilworth are centred around grassroots inclusivity, starting with women and girls and supporting low-income families that can't access the sport.

2025 National Schools Champions Kenilworth girls (image supplied)

She said: "Funding will help guide us in that direction. I also want to bring the school's programme back. At a young age, we can attract both boys and girls and if we can sustain the girls into their teenage years and beyond, then we're doing our job as a women's collective.

"We've got reasonable numbers in our junior section, but the next step is encouraging them to take the step into competitive squash. We always want it to be fun but if we want to create future champions, we need to push our juniors in the right way.

"We're lucky to have a good male player, Guy Pearson, who the kids adore and now Sarah-Jane too.

"The other day, she had 15 minutes free and took a junior on court – you don't get that very often.

"We're lucky to have four female coaches driving us forward – I think we're winning at Kenilworth!"

Be part of the movement that's putting women front and centre in squash.

Find out more and join the Women's Squash Collective today.

Discover more about England Squash's commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Girls and boys at Jen's session at Kenilworth (image supplied)

Find out more and join the Women's Squash Collective today.

Discover more about England Squash's commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Find out more about Kenilworth Squash club email: [email protected] or visit its website here.